Waitangi Tribunal to hear claim from Moko Rangitoheriri's mother

Tuesday, 11 August 2020

It has been five years since Moko Rangitoheriri was brutally killed by family friend Tania Shailer and her partner David Haerewa. His mother Nicola Dally-Paki is hoping a claim she has lodged at the Waitangi Tribunal will prevent similar deaths. National Correspondent Florence Kerr reports.

On August 10, 2015, three-year-old Moko Rangitoheriri died.

He’d been kicked, thrown, dropped face first on the floor, bitten, stomped on, had faeces rubbed on his face and denied medical care.

On the day he died, Tania Shailer called for an ambulance after Moko became unresponsive. She said Moko was very cold, not breathing and his stomach was hard. She said Moko had fallen from a woodpile.

Little Moko’s awful death sparked outrage across the country, prompting nationwide marches and protests demanding justice for the toddler.

The subsequent court case and an inquest detailed the atrocities he’d endured: a ruptured bowel, multiple bruises, abrasions, bite marks, and haemorrhages to both eyes.

In 2016, Shailer and Haerewa were sentenced to 17 years in jail for his killing.

Moko and his sister were in Shailer’s care for two months before the toddler’s death while their mother Nicola Dally-Paki cared for their sibling, who was suffering from an illness that required a lengthy stay at Starship Hospital.

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Following his killers’ imprisonment, an inquest into Moko's death found that if recommendations first made years earlier at an inquest into slain toddler Nia Glassie had been fully implemented, the outcome for Moko may have been different.

Five years on, the road to recovery has been rocky.

Arama Ngapo-Lipscombe, the lawyer who represented Dally-Paki during the inquest, says her client continues to suffer the consequences of Shailer and Haerewa’s actions.

Ngapo-Lipscombe says Dally-Paki continues to fight a systemically racist system. She’s filed a Waitangi Tribunal claim, which has been accepted and will be heard under urgency with other claims alleging breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The claims will be considered as part of an inquiry in to Oranga Tamariki by the tribunal.

The Waitangi Tribunal hearing is looking at why a disparity between the number of uplifts of Māori and non-Māori exists, whether legislative changes made in 2017 has helped, and what policy and practices are required to secure outcomes consistent with the Treaty and its principles.

The inquiry is one of five being held after a Newsroom investigation into the attempted uplift of a newborn baby at Hawke’s Bay Hospital last year.

Ngapo-Lipscombe says the basis of the claim will include findings from the inquest into Moko’s death, which found failings by Oranga Tamariki to follow its own policies and procedures.

”We will be utilising the opportunity to highlight the serious breaches and failings of Oranga Tamariki (CYFS at the time) to investigate allegations that Moko was at risk,” Ngapo-Lipscombe says.

“The social workers themselves admitted to their failures to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations of abuse and as a result, Moko died a few days later.

“The Coroner identified a number of failings and offered some solutions. We will look to note these to the Waitangi Tribunal along with a number of personal suggestions from Ms Dally-Paki herself in accordance with her own experience of Oranga Tamariki.”

Ngapo-Lipscombe is representing a number of claimants at the Tribunal and says the stories will show there is no other option than to disestablish Oranga Tamariki.

“You could argue further that Oranga Tamariki is a breach of the Treaty,” Ngapo-Lipscombe says.

“Because it is not one based on partnership. It is designed by the Crown without partnership with Māori. The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in short talk about partnership, protection, and participation. The current models and its predecessors being Oranga Tamariki, Child Youth and Family etcetera are examples of models of ethnocentricity.

“The ethnocentricity model does not work for Māori and that is why Māori are disproportionately over-represented in state care.”

Ngapo-Lipscombe says the only way forward is to have a multifaceted approach that is whānau, hāpu and iwi-led and focuses on a restorative process empowering whānau, instead of punishing them.

Dally-Paki is set to appear before the tribunal in October, Ngapo-Lipscombe says.

The horrific abuse Moko' suffered

After suffering two months of abuse while in the care of Haerewa and Shailer, Moko’s little body could take no more punishment.

After Shailer called an ambulance, paramedics arrived to find Moko lying face down in the home's hallway. Shailer was by his feet while Haerewa kept the other children away from the paramedics. Ambulance officers realised Moko's condition was dire. All they could do was scoop him up and rush him to Taupo Hospital.

He arrived with swelling to his face so bad it was impossible to open his eyes. His abdomen was distended. He had bruising on his front and back. Multiple abrasions and wounds that appeared to be human bite marks were found on his face and arms.

Starship Hospital was called at 3.45pm and plans were made to move Moko north to the hospital where his mother and sibling already were.

But he could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 10pm. Shailer asked hospital staff if Moko would have survived had medical attention had been sought earlier, a police summary of facts says.

A homicide investigation began and a post-mortem was undertaken.

Both defendants supported each other's attacks on Moko and the 'culture of violence' that occurred within the home, the summary of facts says.

Two of the child witnesses in the case said Shailer stomped 'really, really hard' on Moko's abdomen and stomach. It was after this act, thought to have occurred on Thursday, August 6, 2015, that Moko's body started giving up.

On Monday, August 10, Moko was unable to speak and could barely move. Shailer told a friend Moko had fallen from a woodpile. Her friend was concerned and said it was best to have him checked out in case he had a head injury. She even offered to drive them to the hospital. Shailer declined.

Forty minutes later, she would make the 111 call that brought their violence to light, but it was too late to save Moko.